Tajikistan

Country Profile

When Tajikistan was under the Soviet Union, the
country’s agricultural production was controlled by directives and quotas from
the government. Agronomists assigned to the collective farms (Kolkhoz and
Sovkhoz) provided extension and advisory services. Following the fall of the
Soviet Union in 1991 and the ensuing civil war (1992-93) the country extension
services are being provided today by a range of service providers: the public
sector represented by the State extension officers, who are attached to the
Ministry of Agriculture or to the regional or provincial governments; the
private sector through private advisory services run by both international and
domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private companies; Internal
advice within collective Dehkon farms and non-privatized enterprises; and local
forms of knowledge exchange and mutual consultation inside the Mahalla (Mandler, 2010). The main trend in
delivering extension services by donor funded projects is a “pay-per-service”
approach ranging from being crop or livestock specific, expecting farmers to
pay part of the full cost of advisory services, or attempting to recover these
cost indirectly through input supply or micro-credit firms (Swanson et al.,
2001). The resulting effect of this approach is that only a few progressive
farmers with export market access are served and the vast majority of poor farm
households, especially those headed by women farmers do not have access to
extension services. For a full report on the pluralistic agricultural extension system in Tajikistan, click HERE